‘Could There Be Violence If Obama Loses?’
by Aaron Goldstein (10/16/08)
Much has been written and said about the words uttered by a handful of people who have attended rallies featuring John McCain and Sarah Palin. The liberal media would have us believe that all those who attend these rallies and by extension all those who support the McCain-Palin ticket are racists ready to lynch Barack Obama at a moment’s notice.
Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne asks, “Has John McCain, inadvertently perhaps, become the midwife of a new movement built around fear, xenophobia, racism and anger?” I won’t build the suspense. Dionne answers in the affirmative by stating, “What we are witnessing is the mainstreaming of the far right.” ( http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008-10-13/AR2008101302173.html )
Yet Dionne is strangely silent when McCain supporters who marched last month in Manhattan were likened to Nazis, given the one finger salute and told they were not welcome in their posh neighborhood. I guess Dionne believes the liberals and socialists who inhabit the Upper West Side are completely absent of fear, xenophobia, racism and anger because they support an end to the War in Iraq and want universal health care. Michelle Malkin has written about what occurred in New York and has posted the YouTube video of the incident on her website. ( http://michellemalkin.com/2008/10/15/the-rage-thats-not-on-your-front-page/ )
Meanwhile, Georgia Democratic Congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis casually likens McCain and Palin to the former Alabama Governor George Wallace:
Senator McCain and Governor Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse. George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created a climate and a condition that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights. Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama. http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/10/11/civil-rights-icon-compares-mccain-segregationist/ ):
I want to personally congratulate John Lewis for not only having rendered the word hatred meaningless but also for cheapening himself in the process. Mr. Lewis when it was that John McCain ever uttered the words segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever? Mr. Lewis when has Sarah Palin ever stood in front of a schoolhouse door to block entry for African-American students or anybody else? You would think that someone who lived through segregation would know better than to trivialize the legacy of George Wallace. But Lewis has proven he is willing to sell his soul so Obama can win the White House.
Yes, there are crackpots who will cast a ballot for McCain and Palin. Yes, there were things expressed that ought to have been left unsaid. But Obama has nothing to fear from these people or anyone else who casts a Republican ballot. No, McCain-Palin supporters will not be happy should Obama win. But they will live with it. I will live with it. After all, Barack Obama can do plenty to mess things up and by 2012 it is entirely possible he will have worn out his welcome with the electorate.
So I am not worried about McCain-Palin supporters if Obama wins. However, I am worried about Obama-Biden supporters if McCain wins.
What do I mean by this statement?
Well, to begin with, if politics has ever taught me anything is that one ought to be prepared for any possible outcome be it good or bad and to make the best of it. Sometimes you get what you want and sometimes you don’t. That doesn’t mean one has to like an unfavorable outcome. It simply means that it isn’t the end of the world. Life goes on.
The 2004 Presidential election could have gone either way between George W. Bush and John Kerry. It was not implausible that John Kerry could have made Bush a one term wonder like his father. While I thought Bush could overcome Kerry’s challenge I also knew that Kerry could prevail just as easily. So I made a point of preparing myself for both outcomes. Although I must admit I was increasingly pensive in the final hours before the polls closed. Despite the anxiety I maintained an even keel and was ready for the chips to fall wherever they landed.
I attended a gathering of Young Republicans at a bar on Boylston Street just a few blocks from Copley Square where Kerry supporters were gathered for a victory party. Kerry was expected to address the crowd later that night as President-elect. Well, Kerry never did speak in front of that gathering. I felt sorry for those supporters. At least he could have come down and thanked them.
Exiting the bar a few hours later we chanted, “Four More Years!!! Four More Years!!!” It was raining at the time and we didn’t care if we got wet. But the rain was the least of our concerns. Coming upon us at precisely the same moment were Kerry supporters leaving their celebration that was not to be. We were greeted with middle fingers, expletives as well as pushing and shoving. However, there was no need for law enforcement to get involved. It was over as soon as it started. But make no mistake. The anger was there. These Kerry supporters held Bush in such contempt they didn’t think for a minute that they could lose. But once their candidate had lost it inhibited their capacity for reason.
At the moment, things look good for Barack Obama. He is expected to win on November 4th. The election is his to lose. Yet they don’t think he can lose. But what if he does lose? How will his supporters handle that one? This is why I fear that if Barack Obama loses the 2008 Presidential Election there could be riots on America’s streets.
Of course, I hope that doesn’t come to pass. I would like to think Obama supporters would assume the cool pose favored by their candidate and say, “Obama 2012” and then live to fight another day.
But when one does not get what one wants that is when passion often triumphs over reason. These are people who believe Bush stole both the 2000 and 2004 elections. They believe their civil liberties are being taken away. These are people who believe the Bush Administration engineered 9/11. They think McCain is a war monger and Palin a religious zealot with a gun. Let’s also not forget our economy is in shambles at the present time and the future is more uncertain than usual. If an Upper West Side white liberal crowd can get riled at a handful of McCain supporters on a beautiful, warm Sunday afternoon in September then imagine what could happen if McCain actually wins on a dark, cold Tuesday night in November.
And let us not forget the African American community. Needless to say, many African Americans have a stake in the success of Obama that they did not have for either Kerry or Al Gore even if they did vote for Kerry and Gore in large numbers. So if Obama were to lose it could be perceived as an injustice in the same way an arrest was in Rochester in 1964 or in the Watts section of Los Angeles in 1965; when Martin Luther King, Jr was assassinated in 1968 and when the LAPD officers who beat up Rodney King were acquitted in 1992. If such a calamity were to rear its ugly head in the event of an Obama loss if there would ever be a time for Obama to be at his most eloquent that would surely be it.
So if the liberal media and the Left want to insist all who support John McCain and Sarah Palin are racist extremists they ought to ask themselves how they would behave if Barack Obama were to lose. If they were to see a rock on the ground would they pick it up?
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